Lene Thiesen (born 1947 in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

) is the former

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

of the Copenhagen International Theatre (). In 1992, Thiesen was named 'Woman of the Year' by the Danish magazine ''Alt for damerne''.Alt for damerne, 41/1992 according t
Lene Thiesen's Kvinfo profile
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History

Thiesen earned a Ph.D. in French at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

, with a thesis on the

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n-born Theatre of the Absurd playwright Artur Adamov, who wrote in French after moving to

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. She worked as an EU

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for a time, but left to return to Denmark. Thiesen worked with KIT for a number of years before becoming its director. KIT has had a pioneering role in bringing a wide range of performers to Denmark; it is considered a cultural festival with global influences as much as it is a theatre. Thiesen edited a book of essays and reviews on KIT, published in Danish as ''FOOLS 25 : 25 års teater, dans og performance med Københavns Internationale Teater'' (English: ''Fools 25: 25 years of theatre, dance and performance with the Copenhagen International Theatre''). The book includes photographs of some performers, among them innovative dance companies, 'extreme' circuses such as Archaos, musicians, theatre companies, etc. Thiesen took a particular interest in finding

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...

acts from around the world, some of which placed unusual demands on her as a director; at one point she found herself in sole charge of a team of circus horses which turned up at the Copenhagen railway station without their handler. Thiesen improvised by placing them, with the consent of the Queen, in the royal stables. She later headed a cultural programme in which the Nordic governments set up cultural exchanges with African performance groups, particularly in

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and its

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community. The Nordic Council of Ministers' programme ran for a two-year period in 1998 and 1999, and encompassed more than 50 exchange projects in dance, theatre, music, literature and photography. It was followed by ''Shuttle 02'', a Danish initiative which concentrated on dance and music as two vital art forms in the

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n cultural heritage. Thiesen lived in

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for several years before taking up an appointment in 2005 with the Danish Arts Agency, an arm of the Ministry of Culture. She left the agency in 2007 but as a consultant helped to organise a significant theatre exchange with China. It involved 52 performances in eight theatres, three seminars on Danish children's theatre, four workshops and 4,300 km by bus, rail and plane crossing China. This was part of a programme in which three Danish children's theatre companies initiated a two-week-long tour to China, with visits to Beijing, Shanghai, Hefei and the old cultural capital Xi'an. The title of the project was ‘Real Tales from Denmark’, linking contemporary issues and subjects to Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales. It was the first time that China had officially invited an international programme of travelling children's theatre to visit China to give performances, workshops and seminars.

References

External links

Kvinfo profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thiesen, Lene 1947 births Living people Danish entertainers People from Copenhagen